Enjoying seasonal fruits and veggies instead of holiday treats
I've been making an effort to look up what fruit and veggies are in season each month, and to eat them or cook with them. It's kept me from getting in a rut, given me something new to enjoy each month, and become a replacement for other, AHEM, seasonal foods!
The fall has been great for butternut squash, acorn squash, and sweet potatoes! I've enjoyed oranges, tangerines, cranberries and pomegranates for the past month, and now am into grapefruit and papaya for December. :-) It sounds silly, but it's a nice little thing to do for yourself.
I am at the Farmer's Market weekly, and my current favorites are clementines, broccoli, kale, and Asian pears. Oh, and this great hybrid of spinach and mustard greens that this one booth sells...it has more bite than spinach, but less than mustard greens, so it's perfect in soups or even raw.
I belong to a winter CSA (community supported agriculture, where I get a box of fresh organic produce every 2 weeks). I am enjoying kale, spinach, butternut squash, turnips, beets, and my favorite, greenhouse grown mesclun greens.
That's great! Plus, produce that is in season is cheaper and tastes amazing. And all of that variety is giving you a great range of nutrients.
I do hate that lull when summer fruits go out of season, but once the good citrus shows up I get so excited. And the sweet potatoes and winter squashes are majorly satisfying. Sweet potato is a staple of my pre/post workout feedings.
Cocktail fruit (not fruit cocktail) is my favorite Holiday fruit. The season starts around Thanksgiving and ends a little after Christmas (I think it goes on a little longer than that, but the fruit is only bright Christmas green during Nov/December).
It looks like a kelly green grapefruit, and tastes like lemonade with hint of orange and grapefruit.
I tried giving them as part of Christmas gifts one year, because I fell in love with them when I found them in our local asian grocery store, but they weren't as well-received as I was hoping.
It does not sound silly at all... it sounds smart. Since there is not much seasonal now where I live, I still go to a natural market and find different kinds of new produce to try. I have been putting them in a bag with seasonings and a bit of lemon flavor olive oil, shaking it up, and spreading them on a cookie sheet to bake. I love yams and asparagus that way... going to try carrot chips, zucchini, red bell pepper, brussel sprouts, kale, cauliflower... and look around for some types of veggies I have never tried before.
Perhaps will try some fruit as well.
I have not eaten any holiday treats at all so far and don't plan to... with the exception of tiny pieces of cake, one cookie, etc., at an event... but that is part of my normal plan and does not hurt me.
It's a great way to have delicious food without the "I have to have holiday treats" mindset. I am learning to NOT think of food as a treat.
Doesn't sound silly at all! I'm going to look up the fruits in season now. That's a great idea! Right now my favorite thing to do is to buy the frozen mixed fruit at Walmart, the Great Value brand, believe it or not it's excellent! It has peaches, mangos, pineapple, and strawberries in it. I stick it in the microwave for about a 1 to 1 1/2 mins to unfreeze it and add a few copped walnuts to it. It's so yummy! I think adding a little shredded coconut to it would make it amazing!
Kaplods - does cocktail fruit have another name? I think I may have seen them at our dollar store last week but I didn't know what they were and didn't try them. I don't remember what the label said but it wasn't cocktail fruit. I'll pick some up if I see them again. Smallish green grapefruit looking citrus.
We have a wonderful dollar store that has what must be surplus veggies that the producer couldn't sell to the big chains. I never know what I will find there (for $1) but I often get the big boxes of spring mesclun mix or baby spinach. A week ago I got 3 of the best asian pears I've ever had. I went back for more but they were gone. We fill up the fridge with veggies every week and eat as much as we can.
Kaplods, at our Farmer's Market this past week, there was a vendor with Buddha's Hand...I remembered you posting a photo of it at some point, or I would have had NO idea what it was.
Yes, it has several. It's also called cocktail pomelo, and cocktail grapefruit (even though it isn't a grapefruit at all).
It's thought to be a hybrid between a pomelo (related to grapefruit, but not grapefruit) and a small orange.
There are also other varieties of pomelo hybrids that are very similar. Also, the color of the ripe fruit is bright green early in November/December, then yellow-green, and by January they're yellow. The color has to do with seasonal temperatures, but has absolutely nothing to do with ripeness or flavor. So the yellow ones taste exactly like the green ones (the green ones are just neat to put in a Christmas fruit basket with red fruits like apples or pomegranate).
Pomelo and their hybrids come in all shapes, sizes and skin thicknesses, another interesting one is "Ugli fruit" which has a very similar flavor to the cocktail pomelo. It's name is pronounced "ugly" and the fruit is very ugly. It has a very mottled greenish, yellowish, brownish skin that is very wrinkly so it looks rather unappealing, but the flavor is awesome. It also tastes like lemonade, but much sweeter lemonade. I called both "lemonade fruit" when introducing them to my nephews.
Ugli fruit is easier to peel, and the fruit is sweeter (but also more expensive)l. The peel is thick, but loose like a tangerine.
Also, if you have an asian market (especially if it's a small, family-run store), there's a good chance that you'll find them better there at a better price in better condition (at least that's been my experience). So for any fruits imported from asia (such as rambutan and pomelo) I always check the asian markets first. The fruit is fresher, prettier, tastier, and usually 1/2 the price as the conventional grocery store.
Kaplods, at our Farmer's Market this past week, there was a vendor with Buddha's Hand...I remembered you posting a photo of it at some point, or I would have had NO idea what it was.
They smell so wonderful, they're almost worth the price just for the fragrance alone.
Enjoying seasonal fruits and veggies instead of holiday treats
